B2MeM Mostly Drabbles
by Altariel
Summary: Drabbles and some poetry written for the March 2012 Back to Middle-earth Month Bingo Challenge. Starring: a cast of thousands!
1. Stepping Stone

**Prompts:**

_Economy: _Market Day

_2nd March 3019: _Second Battle of the Fords of Isen

* * *

**Stepping-stone**

Ever-mindful, she comes this way every year, although the fords mark the edge of her country, and the trail takes her off the beaten track. The March flowers glisten on the green turves like fresh tears.

On one occasion, she sees another standing on the other bank, a river and a world away. She half-lifts her hand in greeting; the other mirrors the move.

One day, when sorrow is less sharp, this outpost will become a trading post. A little wooden bridge will rise, permitting commerce. And the _simbelmyn__ë_and the hardy hill flowers will cross the water, each way.


	2. Snaga speaks

**Prompts:**

_Alternate Viewpoint:_The Tower of Cirith Ungol

_Write what you know_: A character with whom you have something in common

* * *

_**Snaga speaks**_**:**

…oh but it was a pretty thing that cloak and I swear to you I only put the tip of me finger on it and I'm thinking _oh that's smooth that is that'd feel nice against yer skin _when the next thing I know the captain's screaming _take your filthy hand off that you thieving little scumbag_ and I swear all I done was touch barely left a mark but ain't the Captain always like that (yeh captains are always like that) and then they all went mad but I kept me head down, well best that way ain't it…


	3. A Land Fit For Heroes

**Prompts:**

_Alternate Viewpoint: _The Field of Cormallen

_Economy: _Real Estate

* * *

**Land Fit For Heroes**

God promised us this land: a gift for his servants.

When first we marched here, we marvelled at the waste. Such wealth of space and water! Our land is a desert, where thirst rules. This land would make a better home. Why should it not be ours? Others lived here before the Sea-lords came, and fought themselves, and left. Why is this theirs, not ours?

God is dead. A new king has come. He sends us home in chains, past the island that we took, down the river that we won. Our land is a desert, where thirst is king.


	4. Fire on the Mountain

**Prompts:**

_Off the Map's Edge: _The Balrogs

* * *

**Fire on the Mountain**

_A Rider of Rohan brings back a new-old tale from Mundburg_:

Once a white city stood midst circling mountains,  
High halls hidden from foe and hurt.  
Gondolin the Great, tall tower of Turgon,  
With seven gates wrought of gold and silver.  
Long the walls lasted till treason took them –  
Kinsman of the King, Maeglin the 'curséd.  
With drake and worm was their doom wrought,  
With fell beast of fire – a Balrog of Morgoth,  
Wingéd with smoke, its sword aflame.  
The towers trembled 'neath its footfall.  
Great was the burning; greater the grieving  
So the songs from the South-land tell us.


	5. The Forgotten People

**Prompts:**

_8th March 3019: _The Dead receive their summons

* * *

**The Forgotten People**

Do the Dead hear?  
Only the whisper of voices on the wind, and the rattle of bones.  
But they listen for the horn in the hills.

Do the Dead see?  
Only the eyes of each other, hollow and hopeless.  
But they search for the figure at the Door.

Do the Dead feel?  
Only the weight of years, the chain of their broken oath.  
But they remember time before this time, the world of life and light.

Do the Dead know?  
Only that they are forgotten.  
They know they are forgotten.

Till the Dead are called  
And come at the command.


	6. The Lord Giveth and the Lord Taketh Away

**Prompts:**

_Economy: _Climate change

_Write what you know:_ A character you dislike – what might you have in common

* * *

**The Lord Giveth and the Lord Taketh Away**

_In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong._

Job 1: 22

God lifted up an island from beneath the waves, as a gift for the children, to live at last in peace and harmony. And God and the children thought that this was good.

But children will be children – and love, sometimes, turns out to be conditional. So when the children grew (as children must), and tested the boundaries (as children do), and said 'no' (as children will), God was minded to reconsider the gift.

And God broke the world, which sent the wave – and the cries of the righteous and unrighteous alike were drowned out by its vengefulness and fury.


	7. You pays your money

**Prompts:**

_Alternate Viewpoint: _A Thief in the Night

* * *

**You pays your money and you takes your chances**

On balance, I decided I wasn't too disappointed about the death of the dragon. Fiery bolts from overhead might well come in handy when the invasion of Eriador is underway, but the thing you have to remember about dragons is that they're not entirely on your side. They burn through orc armies as quickly as they do those of your enemies, and while orcs won't be hard to come by, I prefer some elegance to proceedings.

Besides, I had bigger fish to fry. Elvish fish. One glimpse of the Arkenstone and Thranduil was slavering. This is going to be easy.


	8. Total War

**Prompts:**

_Economy:_ War

_7th March 3019: _Denethor and the_ palantír_

* * *

**Total War**

"_It is long since we had any hope."  
_Faramir, "The Window on the West", _The Two Towers_

But before he left, they quarrelled. Not open hostilities, but that mutually assured destruction that has been their modus operandi for years. Not even death could bring them together.

"We are bereft," the other said, "but we must not despair. There is still hope."

He sees their emptied coffers and their opened veins. He sees a world in motion against him. He sees trenches, blitzkrieg, holocaust, fallout. He sees enemies at the gate, at the door, under the bed. He sees a mail clad fist punching at a human face, forever.

"Hope?" he said. "My son, we are beyond hope."


	9. Self Medication

**Prompts:**

_Facets of Faramir: _Writer

_Poetic Forms: _Sonnet

_Scientific achievement: _Pharmacy

* * *

**Self-Medication**

Over the years he devised many tricks to distract from the fact of imminent annihilation, the dream-brought knowledge that not even the virtuous survive the end of the world.

Music helped; fast finger-exercises transmuting conscious thought into muscle-memory. Words were better; ever-increasing mastery of complex tongues and forms. Meditations on the natural world. Rainbow sunsets to persuade him of a world beyond death.

One ash day, his strategies fall in ruins. Then she walks into the garden. _If you live_, he thinks, artless as a schoolboy, _there is still life. _

Self has limits - but beyond the self is infinite.


	10. Famine in the Land

**Prompts:**

_Economy_: Scarcity

_Off the Map's Edge_: Fell Beast

* * *

**Famine in the Land**

Their dominion was an older time, before tales of lamps and suns and moons and Elves and Men. They flew above the world uncontested, thousands upon thousands, great dark skeins against the fledgling sky. They screamed and dived and feasted on the duller, slower beasts that crawled below.

Endless winter fell from nowhere. The sky turned black. The mountains erupted and the seas caught fire. Only the strongest survived, shivering alone in the cold pits, grubbing at dead earth for whatever they could find.

Then He came. And from the first piece of flesh He offered them, they were His.


	11. Gatherers and Sharers

**Prompts:**

_Economy_: Redistribution

* * *

**Gatherers and Sharers**

_"Even in the Shire there are some as like minding other folk's business and talking big."_

Robin Smallburrow, "The Scouring of the Shire", _RotK_

"There's a few carrots and some good onions," said Gaffer Goodchild, "and a sack of parsnips behind the hedge. I daresay your Marigold'll find a use for 'em in her kitchen."

"She will that," said Daddy Brown.

Little Robin Noakes, ears flapping, trotted down the lane.

"Give her a minute," muttered Daddy Brown, but it was half that before Asphodel Bracegirdle, cape flapping, came bustling up. "Now Gaffer," she said, "what's this I hear? The Rules say it's best if we gather and share."

"Daresay you're right there, missus," said the Gaffer. He hadn't mentioned the taters in the shed.


	12. Crooked Games

**Prompts:**

_Alternate Viewpoint:_ The Clouds Burst

* * *

**Crooked Games**

"_You are playing some crooked game of your own, Master Gandalf."  
_Thorin Oakenshield, "The Quest of Erebor", _UT_

He left us then, our hearth flickering with the image of dragon-fire in Eriador. "Old Gandalf's not so close as he once was," Pippin said.

"Aye," said Gimli, "but does not say everything." His brows gathered like storm clouds.

"What do you mean?" I said. "I for one have never heard the tale told so plain!"

"He knew those orcs were coming from the North. Yet he gave no warning."

"But he guessed that an old man's words would go unheeded," Merry said. "Old feuds and old gold cloud the mind."

"And Thorin died," said Gimli. "A costly game indeed."


	13. Soldiers of Ithilien

**Prompts:**

_6th March 3019:_The Haradrim in Ithilien

* * *

**Soldiers of Ithilien**

For many years now, he has walked through this green land. He knows its paths and secret ways, the names of its flowers and shrubs, the silver ripple of the river running by. He knows its ruins.

He has battled here beneath the trees many times, and lost many friends in these fragrant, pleasant valleys. During sleepless nights beneath the moon, he has sworn to himself that he will see this place free of his enemies, settled, safe again for woman and child.

He stands once more on the edge of battle. "Captain," whispers his lieutenant. "The _tarkil_ are here."


	14. A Decayed House

**Prompts:**

_Off the Map's Edge:_ The Petty Dwarves

_Scientific achievement: _Statics

* * *

**A Decayed House**

Even they no longer recalled why they had been driven forth. Perhaps they had been too clever or too rich. Somehow they had been different. Whatever the reason, it had been enough, and there was no-one left to remember why. They were almost gone now, and their persecutors did not care.

Only old Mîm remained, sitting in the ruins, running tarnished gold through his fingers, murmuring the names of his sons. There Húrin found him and, lifting his sword, with one quick movement sent him from the world. Last of a dead people, Mîm lay at rest.

And Morgoth laughed.


	15. Greenwood

**Prompts:**

_15 March 3019:_ Battle under the trees in Mirkwood

_Poetic Forms: _Haiku

* * *

**Greenwood  
**_For the Wild Iris_

The east wind brought them:  
Black steel under winter trees.  
With the day came spring.


	16. Scatha's Teeth

**Prompts:**

_Off the Map's Edge:_ Scatha

* * *

**Scatha's Teeth**

_Meduseld, August 3019, T.A._

Mithrandir, finishing his account, earned much praise, for this was not a story Edoras had heard before. Then the Lady Éowyn, lifting her golden cup, said, "I too have a dragon-tale, which our people brought from the North with this treasure." But her brother stayed her, saying, "Not all in our company would welcome the reminder. Master Gimli needs no more reason to rebuke me!"

The Lady Éowyn was ashamed, but Gimli, rising from his seat, bowed deeply. "We have no jewel in our treasury to match your sister's courtesy!" And when her guests departed, she gave him the cup.


	17. Reconstruction

**Prompts:**

_Economy: _Infrastructure

_Facets of Faramir: _Mentor

* * *

**Reconstruction**

_Ithilien, early in the Fourth Age_

The little boy wanted to see the works, so one spring morning they rode north from the new house in Emyn Arnen.

Anduin flowed strongly to their left. They spied ships in the harbour. A cleared lane ran along the river's eastern bank, with young trees planted that one day would give travellers shade. At the Morgulduin, pale tributary, a wooden bridge had been built. Crossing this, they heard the great clamour of stone being lifted from the depths.

Later, he watched the boy playing with his blocks. "You do not need to build high," he said, "but build well."


	18. It walked the forests long ago

**Prompts:**

_Alternate Viewpoint:_ Helm's Deep

_Poetic Forms:_ Acrostic

* * *

**It walked the forests long ago**

Hate filled their hearts as they waited and weathered.  
Ents become wild, ancient wood-wardens.  
Long their loathing smouldered unsated, till  
Making their move, in darkness they drew  
Saruman's slaves beneath their branches.

Death they dealt out in the Deeping-coomb.  
Early light came to a corpse-cleared valley,  
Enemy-emptied, silent and still.  
Peace lay like leaves on a land made pure.


	19. My Brilliant Career

**Prompts:**

_24th March 3019:_ The Mouth of Sauron receives his instructions

* * *

**My Brilliant Career**

News of Angmar's death upset me about as much as news of Saruman's defeat. And at the hands of a woman! I'll be smiling for Ages.

All the same, these Wizards and Witch-kings. But who's laughing now? Put not your faith in spells; put it in steel, alliances with eastern potentates, and a mighty fuck-off war machine. How often have I said that?

There's a rabble at the gate and a man who would be King. But I have a sword, a brooch, and a mithril-coat, and I'm not afraid to use them.

Today's going to be a good day.


	20. The Hunter on the Hill

**Prompts:**

_Off the Map's Edge:_ The rides of Oromë

* * *

**The Hunter on the Hill**

"Many of us have seen him, the Hunter on the Hill. To some he is a creature of wonder, riding a silver horse with golden hooves whose whinny shakes the waters. To others he is a shadow-shape, blotting out the stars, chasing those who stray too far. And it is true that some have gone, have been lost in the night. Have they wandered away? Or have they been taken—?"

_Hush. Listen. Can you hear their voices? The Firstborn have woken. They have begun to sing and speak. _

_Listen. _

_The time is now. The Horseman rides forth. History is beginning. _


	21. Death and Taxes

**Prompts:**

_Economy:_ Taxation

_Facets of Faramir:_ Diplomat

_Write what you know:_ A favourite quote from a political or historical figure

* * *

**Death and Taxes **_(or: Númenóreans can't cheat death, but can they get a rebate?)_

"Secondly," the Prince of Ithilien said, as he passed the King of the West in the corridor, "it affords protection against cheaper and inferior Haradric produce."

"Fourthly," he added at the butts the next morning, "the money only comes back to our reconstruction work. Why tax the source?"

"Seventhly," (murmured to both King and Queen before the speeches began at Merethrond), "the personal fortune of the House of Húrin has been much depleted over the years."

"And, finally," said Elessar Telcontar to his Council the next day, "we come to the levy upon oil from the olive presses of Ithilien..."


	22. The Way Through the Woods

**Prompts:**

_13th March 3019:_ The Pûkel-Men hold a council

_Poetic Forms:_ Alliterative verse

* * *

**The Way through the Woods**

Now the shadow-veil lay on the Stonewain Valley.  
Now came the Wild Men, cunning Woses,  
Woodcraft-wise, wary of horsemen.  
Hard news they bore of a host-blocked road;  
In the mountains beyond, Mundburg was burning.

Long was the lane lost to thorn and to thicket.  
Longer since the Sea-kings carved those stones.  
Yet goat-footed Ghân, faithful friend and orc-hater,  
Led horse and horseman, scout and spear,  
Under gloom-grey trees where the trail had grown over.  
Pale light brought fresh wind and the plain way forward.

Grave thanks were given. Thus Thengel's son  
Rode forth to the out-walls, and feared no darkness.


	23. The Wounded Surgeon

**Prompts:**

_Alternate Viewpoint:_ The Black Gate Opens

_Off the Map's Edge:_ Hildórien

_Scientific achievement:_ Medicine

* * *

**The Wounded Surgeon**

The Firstborn said Melkor sickened them, but on the shores of Hildórien he was the soft breath of wind that caressed each one as they woke.

He found they were susceptible to quacks who claimed quick cures. Once, this was beyond his leechcraft. He set his instruments aside. The surgery was more drastic than he might have prescribed.

In the dark days, he sent messengers to nurse them back; and, in the end, he sent them Eagles, wing-beats like a blessing placed upon each head.

The whole of history has been a heartbeat to him – and Arda is still marred.


	24. Immovable Types

**Prompts:**

_Write what you know:_ Borrow someone else's OC (Isabeau's Amrothos)

_Scientific achievement:_ Print

* * *

**Immovable Types**

The idea came from stories heard in childhood of the family dream: the great ineluctable wave; the intransigence of Powers faced by Man's pride. It breaks his heart to think of everything gone: poetry and lays and songs; philosophies and treatises; devices and machines he can barely imagine.

So he chops words up into discrete parts; moulds them; turns them into metal. Everything taken apart, rebuilt, fixed. He pictures constellations of knowledge; galaxies of lore.

Others will fear his creation and the unruliness it will bring. But he means to set words free so they will never be lost again.


	25. The Adjudicators

**Prompts:**

_Alternate Viewpoint:_ Riddles in the Dark

* * *

**The Adjudicators**

"That's not a riddle, it's a question!"

"Well, I think that rather depends on whether he's speaking physically or metaphysically."

"I have absolutely no idea what you mean by that."

"No, you never do..."

"Will you two shut up? I'm trying to listen!"

"Well, what _does_ he have in his pockets?"

"I don't know!"

"The Doom of Men."

"Oh, you always say that! Not string. Not his hands. Not nothing... Oh."

"Oh dear."

"Quite."

They waited. Time passed.

"Did we determine whether we thought that was a riddle or a question?"

"I'll let you know what I decide," said Mandos.


	26. God's Gonna Cut You Down

**Prompts:**

_Economy:_ Agriculture

_Write what you know:_ Title and/or lyrics from the last song you listened to

* * *

**God's Gonna Cut You Down**

Someone has always had to do the dirty work: to clean, to clear, to dig, to reap, to sow.

Not here. Never again.

We have cleared huge tracts of land and built great machines for cultivation. We have studied our own lifespan and used that knowledge to good purpose. Our livestock does not sicken and our plants do not wither. Our rural and urban poor have benefitted from cheaper and more various food, and from the leisure hours available to them as a result of better work.

We are sowing seeds for our future. We are coming to full bloom.


	27. The Little Hobbit Lass

**Prompts:**

_Economy:_ Travelling Merchants

_Write what you know:_ A food you dislike

* * *

**The Little Hobbit Lass That Didn't Like Mushrooms**

"No, thank you," said the-little-hobbit-lass-that-didn't-like-mushrooms to Gammer Noakes. "I don't like mushrooms."

"Don't like mushrooms?" said Gammer Noakes. "Whoever heard of a hobbit that didn't like mushrooms?"

But the little-hobbit-lass didn't like mushrooms, and while nearly everyone thought this was strange, her little-hobbit-brother didn't, because he got more mushrooms.

One day, merchants from the south came to Sarn Ford. The little-hobbit-lass-who-didn't-like-mushroom's father went to the market there, and came home with a soft knobbly ball that smelled of newly-ploughed earth and autumn rain, and tasted of strange, wonderful lands. And the-little-hobbit-lass-that-didn't-like-mushrooms discovered that she did like some mushrooms after all.


	28. What Did You Do in the War

**Prompts:**

_23rd March 3019:_ One of the 'faint-hearted'

* * *

**What Did You Do In the War, Daddy?**

I saw the first spring flowers come to Lossarnach Vale. The snowdrops slipped out quietly, as if nothing was different this year.

I marched with the old lord, old Forlong, under his banner. I saw the city for the second time. Its towers were tall. It was not as white as its name might suggest. It was blacker after the battle.

I marched with the new king, under his banner. We walked through Ithilien, past the Crossroads, north. On the edge of desolation, I put my head in my heads and wept.

When I came home, it was still spring.


	29. There and Back Again

**Prompts:**

_Off the Map's Edge:_ The flight of the Stoors

* * *

**There and Back Again**

All of it happened a very long time ago, before even my grandmother's grandmother was alive. A shadow came from the North, a great hand stretching over the lands. We fled its grasp. We walked across the mountains and came to this valley of golden flowers.

We were happy here. We fished for food and our grandmothers guided us. Then one of us went missing.

Now people whisper in the dark. There are secrets and lies. In ones and twos we slip away. Our grandmothers speak of another long walk. Perhaps we will come again, in time, to kindlier places.


	30. The Grass is Singing

**Prompts:**

_Alternate Viewpoint:_ The Voice of Saruman

_Scientific achievement:_ Metalworking

_Write what you know:_ Title and/or lines from a favourite non-Tolkien poem

* * *

**The Grass is Singing**

We worked in gold, bronze, copper, iron, brass. We lived freely and made many beautiful things. When the Sea-Lords and the Straw-Heads allied themselves against us, we made shields, swords, helmets. None of it was enough. They stole our lands and cursed our dead to walk forever. We took to the hills and ate grass.

The White Hand came amongst us. He reminded us of what we had lost. He gave us the new hard metal.

Now his valley is a wasteland and we creep back to our hills. But we will never forget how steel feels in the hand.


	31. Queen of a Little Kingdom

**Prompts:**

_Alternate Viewpoint:_ Fog on the Barrow-Downs

_Economy:_ Luxury Items

* * *

**Queen of a Little Kingdom; Queen of Infinite Space**

No, she will not forget her, the woman who once wore this brooch. She remembers her well – last queen of a fading kingdom of men, on her wedding day, fresh and sweet and ornamented, with the hope of a whole people pinned upon her. She will not forget her – or her sacrifice.

The north has weathered many winters. Its bones and ruins lie shivering in the thin grass, waiting. In a little house on the border, a woman greets the golden sunrise before returning to her work. Mending, making, minding. Dancing among the rushes with the silver river running by.


	32. Story Time

**Prompts:**

_Alternate Viewpoint:_ Of the Fifth Battle – Nirnaeth Arnoediad

_Off the Map's Edge:_ The Were-worms of the Last Desert

* * *

**Story Time**

Master Samwise, gardener and patriarch, often told his tribe tales from the Great Red Book. Uncle Bilbo's Party was a favourite, as were the silly Were-Worms. But as the children grew, the stories grew too – and, one night, he told them of the proud Elven hosts that marched against the Dark Lord. He told them of the treachery of Men – and of their courage too. Of one man, standing alone, crying out that the day would come again.

The room was still. Sam knew what they were thinking. _Shut the book now, Dad. We don't want to hear any more._


	33. Edge of Ruin

**Prompts:**

_3rd March 3019:_The destruction of Isengard

_Write what you know:_ What did you have for lunch yesterday?

* * *

**Edge of Ruin**

He had thought there was nothing to compare with the might of Isengard. Until now.

At his shoulder stands the tree-man (the _tree-man_!), watching. Gríma puts a nervous toe in the dark water and draws it hastily back. Hearing the ominous creak of boughs, he takes the plunge. Soon he is up to his neck in filth and slime. Then his foot slips...

He lunges out for a piece of old barrel and hangs on. A passing duck throws him a mocking glance. He paddles along with one feeble hand. Behind him the trees; ahead, Orthanc – waiting to receive him.


	34. The Faithful

**Prompts:**

_Off the Map's Edge:_ A Variag of Khand

* * *

**The Faithful**

_The King of Arnor and Gondor receives an embassy..._

We are called Easterlings, and it is true we have lived in those lands for an age, keeping open the rivers running between Rhovanion and Khand. It is true many of us knelt before the Giver of Gifts and called him God.

But there are some among us who believe that we came out of the North, like the sons of Eorl that you call brothers. Some of us listened to the Blue Wise Men and heard in their words the whisper of the All-Father, the Elder King.

Some of us have long called you brothers, in secret, from afar.


	35. One Plus One

**Prompts:**

_Poetic Forms:_ Sapphic

_Scientific achievement:_ Mathematics

* * *

**One Plus One**

_(Amrothos to Akilah)_

Darkly veiled you sat in your chair and watched me  
(Sitting by you tongue-tied, lacking in language,  
Counting up the reasons, sound and rational, di-  
Viding you from me),

Lightly traced your fingers – positive, natural –  
Fraction by smooth fraction, argued, persuaded:  
One and one joined can make surely more than the  
Sum of each other.


	36. Because I could not stop for death

**Prompts:**

_5th March 3019:_ The Dúnedain ride through Rohan

* * *

**Because I could not stop for death **

_Halbarad rides..._

Over the years there had been many days when time hung heavy on his hands. Night watches on the border. The long, patient guard of a merry little people leading lives without care. The long fall into the grass of an ancient kingly people.

Then the summons comes from Lórien, urging him South... And now it seems that the many years of his life have not been enough after all.

The days grow short. There is no time. He knows that his way lies ahead. He knows that his way leads to a door and, beyond that door, waits Death.


	37. Bright Star

**Prompts:**

_18th March 3019:_ The orc companies march to Udûn

* * *

**Bright Star**

…anyway we was only just settled in camp only just got everythin straight when the order comes down _March to Udûn! _and our captain's furious (his bunions were bad) but nothing to be done when the word comes from Lugbúrz is there so we're all packing up our gear again and the captain's got his hands on a whip like you've never felt before and I'm just hitchin me pack on me back when I look up and the clouds part and I see this shaft o' light and I think well this can't go on forever now can it…


	38. Easternesse

**Prompts:**

_Off the Map's Edge:_ The Land of the Sun

_Poetic Forms:_ Cinquain

* * *

**Easternesse - a cinquain**

Easternesse,  
mountainous, mysterious,  
source of sunrise,  
stirred by soundless seas,  
Rómenórë.


	39. There'll Always Be An England

**Prompts:**

_Facets of Faramir:_ Statesman

_Meta:_ [canon work] took place during WW1 or 2

* * *

**There'll Always Be An England**

Childhood was a brief golden summer, blighted by his mother's sudden death. After that came poetry, and the relative obscurity of the second son. A first at Balliol (history). He survived the first war, but scarred, besieged by tumultuous nightmares. Women of a certain type adored him for his cheekbones, the early loss of his mother, his sombre solitude, his kindness. Entering Parliament on his brother's death, he understood the Nazi threat early. The backbenches beckoned, then vindication under the new PM. And as the bombs hit Dresden, he thought: _I am not the man I imagined I would be._


	40. Panopticon

**Prompts:**

_16th March 3019:_ Shagrat en route to Barad-dûr

_Poetic forms:_ tanka

_Write what you know:_ what scares you

* * *

**Panopticon**

Ailing and stumbling  
Through the dark sad waste land  
The perfect slave  
Made to serve and serving  
Darkness inescapable


	41. Necessity Is

**Prompts:**

_Alternate Viewpoint:_ A Long-Expected Party

_Scientific achievement:_ Pulley

* * *

**Necessity is...**

It wasn't only the smaller hobbit-children curious as to what treasures were hidden in the grounds of Bag End. Many of the tweens (who should have known better) were also excited, and some of the more adventurous applied themselves with a dedication that would have astonished their parents (and perhaps encouraged them). Alas for these young explorers that their inventiveness (the wood and ropes having been borrowed from Old Noakes' shed) came to naught, and the vanguard of their assault on the garden wall (Master Everard Took) was met by two business-like dwarves who promptly escorted him off the premises...


	42. One Man's Meat

**Prompts:**

_Facets of Faramir:_ Questioner

_Off the Map's Edge:_ The Dunlendings

* * *

**One Man's Meat**

"Us they call the Straw-Heads," she told him. "And they hate us for settling in lands they deem their own. But you..."

"Aye?" he said. "And what do they call us?"

"They have many names for you. Stone-Eaters, for how your forefathers wrought towers and cities from mountains—"

"That might be taken as praise—"

"Tree-Fellers, Fire-Makers—"

"Those less so—"

"And Land-Robbers."

That last he pondered for some time. _Whence_, he asked himself, _comes such implacable hate?_ He did not need his books to give him the answer: that one man's settlement is another's dispossession. Another's exile.


	43. Consider Phlebas

**Prompts:**

_Alternate Viewpoint:_ The Uruk-Hai

_Poetic Forms:_ Free Verse

* * *

**Consider Phlebas**

After the battle,  
After the blood and the iron,  
After the fall and the defeat,  
After the confession (and the absolution),  
Comes the voyage home.

The river took me.  
Little wooden coffin-boat let slip;  
Jetsam bobbing on the water.

Farewell, friends! Farewell, arms!  
My time is past.  
The water holds me now and soon the sea.  
Dreams of sunlit lands wash over me  
And this world of war recedes.

I am blessed and beloved.  
I am at peace at last.  
I am going soon; I am leaving.  
I am passing down the river.  
I am passing through my brother's dreams.


End file.
